Fattoush Salad

An easy recipe of citrusy, and crunchy Fattoush Salad with ingredients you can find in your own pantry.

Posted By
Savita

Fattoush Salad, a zesty, citrusy Mediterranean green salad with cucumber, tomatoes, red onion, with a sweet, tangy and refreshing Fattoush dressing. If you like crunchy salads with savory notes, this salad will become regular in your menu. Served with baked or fried pita chips for crunch, it a delicious salad to try this at-least once.

Also sharing some easy substitutes when you can't find all classic fattoush ingredients in pantry/store but still craving this scrumptious salad.

Fattoush salad is all about dressing and some classic must-have ingredients. Like mint, sumac (a citrusy spice blend mostly seen in Middle Eastern markets or specialty food stores such as Whole Foods), and pomegranate. In simple words, Fattoush salad is not fattoush without these ingredients. I often have sumac in my pantry. So that is once spice I recommend to buy. You can find small 3-4 use pouch in spice isle.

My take on fattoush dressing is simple, using mostly easy-to-find ingredients. Other than sumac, I don't spend extra on buying ingredient such as pomegranate molasses and dried mint, instead make my own easy substitutes.

Pomegranate molasses (you guessed it) is a thick sweet tangy molasses made with pomegranates. If you can find some, feel free to replace pomegranate juice and agave syrup from recipe with Pomegranate molasses. I don't have it often in my pantry, so I make my own substitute. I boil pomegranate juice until it reduces to half (about 6-8 minutes on high medium heat). This concentrates the tangy pomegranate flavor, enhances the sweetness. I use a touch of this, about a tsp mixed with agave syrup and lemon juice and it makes perfect base for my fattoush salad dressing.

Worth a shout out, Agave Syrup is low glycemic index sweetener. Also a little goes a long way. I highly recommend reaching for agave instead of any refined sugar products for daily use.

When in season, fresh organic mint has lots of flavor. if you have some great otherwise no need to buy dried. Fresh mint works just fine.

Once you have the dressing, the fattoush recipe comes together in a breeze. You can use any combination of fresh ingredients for this salad. Classic cucumber, radish, red onion, and pomegranate seeds. Plus the crunchy green base of romaine hearts and lots of fresh herbs - mint, parsley.

Toss these two and you are ready to devour a delicious salad with easy to find ingredients, without a trip of your favorite Mediterranean restaurant.

Note: I have also added all ingredients in my Amazon Shop if you prefer to buy online. Linked at the end of Recipe Card.

Baked Pita Chips:

Pita chips are croutons which balance the citrus notes of fattoush salad quite well. When left too long in salad, it soak in some of the dressing. So, if you like crunchy croutons in salad, I recommend adding these just before serving. Feel free to replace my baked version with store-bought pita chips. Or spend 10 minutes and bake your own chips with my easy recipe (check direction for details).

I hope you will get chance to try fattoush at home. All that extra romaine hearts in refrigerator, red onion, cherry tomatoes. Grab'em and make fattoush dressing to serve a new green and delicious Fattoushy Salad tonight!

Fattoush Salad

Total Time 25 minutesPrep Time 15 minutesCook Time 10 minutesDifficultyEasyYields4 ServingsServes4

Smart Swap
Use GF Pita Chips for Gluten Free Salad.

Ingredients

Fattoush Salad

1
Cucumber
(large hothouse, thin sliced half moons)

1 Bunch
Mint
(fresh leaves, divided)

2 Cup
Cherry Tomatoes
(large one halved)

1 Bunch
Radish
(red or rainbow, sliced)

1/2
Red Onion
(thin sliced, half moons)

1/3 Cup
Pomegranates
(seeds, seeds of one medium pom)

1/2 Bunch
Parsley
(fresh leaves)

2
Lettuce
(romaine hearts, thin chopped)

Dressing

1/4 Cup
Pomegranates
(juice)

3 tbsp
Lemon
(juice)

1 tsp
Garlic
(2-3 cloves)

1/4 Cup
Olive Oil

2 tbsp
Agave Syrup

2 tsp
Sumac

Pita Chips or Home Baked Pita

2
Pita Bread
(cut into triangles)

Paprika

Olive Oil

Directions

1.
In a sauce pan, add pomegranate juice. Place on medium-high heat and boil until it thickens and reduce to 1/2 (about 6-8 minutes). Remove from heat and set aside to cool completely.

2.
Baked Pita: If making homemade pita chips. Preheat oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Cut pita into triangles. Drizzle oil, massage well. Spread on baking sheet. Season with salt, paprika. Bake at 400 for 10 minutes. Keep an eye in last few minutes don't let pita over brown. Once baked, take out and leave aside to cool down.

3.
Fattoush Dressing: Soak Sumac in 3 tbsp of water for 10 minutes. Transfer liquid to a food processor jar (discard solid), add remaining dressing ingredients with a tsp of reduced (adjust to taste) pomegranate juice, and 8-10 mint leaves. Pulse to puree and emulsify vinegar with oil. Remove in a container and set aside.

Additional Notes

Save remaining few spoons of pomegranate juice to make more salad later or to glaze meat.

4.
Slice and place all salad ingredients in a bowl. Drizzle half of dressing on top. Toss to coat all crunchy salad ingredients. Sprinkle salad with more sumac, pinch of salt and black pepper to taste. Garnish with pomegranate seeds and baked pita chips. Serve remaining dressing on side. Enjoy!